The British Virgin Islands (BVI) via the BVI Climate Change Trust Fund (BVICCTF) is the first recipient to agree to funding and support from charity initiative, Rock Against Poverty TM (RAP). Rock Against Poverty is a global team, however two core partners are Australian startups, Metavents based in Melbourne and air events global, based in Sydney.

Rock Against Poverty is a charity initiative leveraging emerging technology such as Virtual Reality Simulation, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain to solve major problems in planning and funding humanitarian projects. Empowered by technology, we aim to raise $1 billion dollars annually for disaster mitigation, and poverty alleviation globally.

2017 was the most costly year on record for natural disasters globally at $306 billion. Almost double that of the previous year. The Caribbean was particularly hard hit with Dominica, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, Virgin Islands and others yet to fully recover.

In early March this year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour, under the Honourable Dr. Kedrick D. Pickering, met in BVI with RAP leadership, New York based NGO, Vihara Foundation and Melbourne based Technology Start-up, Metavents.

Presented was how RAP will utilize Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Holochain (second generation Blockchain technology) to assist in the planning and funding of Disaster Risk Reduction projects slated for BVI, starting with the first rebuilding project at Paraquita Bay.

Technology partner Metavents has developed a platform that allows for remote and real-time project planning using 3D and VR visualisation, similar to the popular game, SimCity where users drag and drop buildings onto a plot of land.

This approach will be used to turn BVI into a 3D simulation that allows the international RAP team to remotely collaborate with local stakeholders without costly needing to travel there. While high end VR headsets will be used for project planning the general public can use inexpensive VR Headsets made from cardboard and their mobile phone.

In late May 2018, the Vihara Foundation and Metavents team will return to BVI to soft launch RAP. Followed by events in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles early June.

Quotes Attributable to Metavents Founder, Joel de Ross.

“2018 is dedicated to identifying projects to support, creating awareness and securing initial funding. We are actively seeking values aligned partners, sponsors and ambassadors who can contact us through our website.”

“A $1 billion target sounds ambitious, but spread across 50 events in 25 countries, it's not. We use simulation to demonstrating to government and funding entities that for every dollar spent on mitigation, saves seven dollars in response and recovery costs.”

”Rock Against Poverty is a great example of the practical application of Virtual Reality. We expect to put mobile VR in the hands of at least half a million people in 2019 which should boost adoption of the technology.”

* The Vihara Foundation (VF) is a Scientific and Educational non-for-profit chartered in 2009 with a purpose of supporting the global efforts underway for Poverty Alleviation, and Climate Mitigation.